Obama and Vice President Joe Biden hosted the bipartisan group of mayors at the White House to assure them that stimulus funds would start arriving in their cities soon, and to let them know what is expected of them in return as the money is distributed.

“What I will need from all of you is unprecedented responsibility and accountability on all of our parts,” Obama said in public remarks before meeting was closed to the press. “I want everybody here to be on notice that, if a local government [proposes a project that will waste stimulus money], I will call them out on it and use the full power of my office and our administration to stop it.”

Afterwards, some participants said that the mayors voiced concern about tension between them and their governors, who will control the distribution of federal stimulus funds sent to states, as well as partisan differences on the stimulus plan between Republicans and Democrats.

“I share many other mayors’ concern that we’ve got to make sure the governors transfer much of this funding to metro areas,” said Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican who did not support the stimulus bill. McCrory also said he asked administration officials to better define “shovel-ready” projects to give local municipalities more flexibility in using the funds. The term refers to approved infrastructure projects that are eligible for stimulus funds and that can be started right away.

Asked if his effort to receive stimulus money was being blocked by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a Republican who opposed the stimulus plan, New Orleans Democratic Mayor Ray Nagan said he did not expect delays in handing out the funds but chalked the possibility of it up to politics.

“I think he’s been tapped as the up-and-coming Republican to run as president,” Nagan said of Jindal. “So he has … a certain way he needs to talk right now.”

“I told the governor personally any of the money that he does not want, we will take it,” he added.

Laredo, Texas, Mayor Raul G. Salinas, a Democrat, said before the meeting that funneling the stimulus money through the states “delays the process” of getting crucially needed dollars to local projects.

“I think it’s important that we get the money directly,” he said, adding that he hopes Obama will prevent a “bureaucratic stalemate.”

The White House cast the meeting as setting a new tone of cooperation with local governments.

Noting that mayors are “on the front lines in our communities,” Obama said he would call on them again as he implements the pending bank bailout and his foreclosure plan.

“This plan doesn't mark the end of what we'll do together; it marks the beginning,” he said.

The mayors welcomed the overture.

“I did not agree with all the parts of the stimulus package,” McCrory said. “However, now that the bill has passed, I want it to work the best way it can. I was very pleased with President Obama’s comment regarding accountability.”